


In Worlds Like Our Own

by gooseberry



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Daemons, Alternate Universe - Dystopian, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Western, M/M, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-08
Updated: 2013-04-08
Packaged: 2017-12-07 21:16:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/753160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gooseberry/pseuds/gooseberry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of little fills for three sentence alternate universe prompts on my tumblr. Arranged thematically, sorta.</p><p>1. Dori/Thorin and Dwalin/Kili, Western AUs<br/>2. Dori/Thorin and Bilbo/Thorin, Modern AUs<br/>3. Fili/Kili, Dystopian AUs<br/>4. Bard/Kili, Daemon AUs</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Western AUs

**Author's Note:**

  * For [victoriousscarf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/victoriousscarf/gifts), [kaleidomusings](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaleidomusings/gifts).



**Dori and Thorin, Western**

The desert is hot and dry, and when they are lucky enough to find a river, they are also smart enough to follow it for days. Dori carries the heaviest packs, shrugging off Thorin’s concern and shrugging on the packs as though he’s one of Thorin’s cattle, massive and unwearied and certainly stubborn enough to be a bull. Thorin follows behind him, along the side of the slow, muddy river, and he watches the sweat pour down Dori’s back, soaking Dori’s shirt, and lets Dori lead him back home.

 

**Dwalin and Kili, Old West**

“Come on then,” Dwalin says, and he watches as Kili swings himself up into the saddle, his leg going long and straight over the horse’s back.

“Try to look happier,” Kili says to Dwalin, and he’s smiling at Dwalin, but his voice sounds a little strained and his hands are skittering over the reins, the pommel, the horse’s mane.

There is no one on this side of the cattle yet, everyone else still saddling up, and so Dwalin grabs the reins of Kili’s horse, pulling the horse’s head closer to his own horse so he can lean over and kiss Kili’s mouth silent.


	2. Modern AUs

**Dori and Thorin, College AU**

“It’s my parents,” Dori says, and he’s sitting on the couch, his head cradled in his hands.

Thorin has never met Dori’s parents, but he’s seen them countless times, in all the pictures that are scattered across Dori’s room, in the pictures that are sent to Dori’s phone like clockwork; he’s heard their voices, tinny and faint, and he’s read their texts over Dori’s shoulder, and he’s heard Dori murmur, sleepily, _of course I love my family_.

Dori’s face is red and tearstained, his mouth open and quivering, and Thorin says, “I’ll drive you to the airport.”

 

**Bilbo and Thorin, Modern AU**

He draws out the plans of their house—a sunroom, a living room, a kitchen large enough for all of Bilbo’s cousins; nooks and crannies for all of their books and wide windows and deep balconies for all of Bilbo’s flowers and vegetables and miniature fruit trees.

“It looks lovely,” Bilbo murmurs when he passes by Thorin’s drafting table. He leans against Thorin’s back, resting his chin on Thorin’s shoulder, and he kisses a laugh against Thorin’s neck when Thorin says,

“It will be.”


	3. Dystopian AUs

**Fili and Kili, Dystopian AU**

Kili’s ribs are sharp lines and Fili runs his fingers along them, dipping his fingertips into the hollows between each rib. Hunger is the pit in his belly and the sallowness of his cheeks; it’s the way Kili sighs and rolls away, arching his knobby back and burying his face against the dirty blankets. Fili leans down, close enough to kiss the radiation burns, and he blows his breath across Kili’s back, across the burning landscape of his brother’s skin.

 

**and then a little bit more**

It was luck that he had found Kili at all. Kili should have been nothing but ash, burnt away with the rest of the city, but Kili hadn't been in the city. Kili had been miles away, walking down the middle of an old cracked road; his back had been to the city, and so when Fili found him, Kili still had both his eyes, and his nose and his mouth, and not much of a back at all.

Radiation burns kill, and Kili's back is covered in them, blisters that are white and yellow, filled with pus and rotting flesh. Kili's body is eating itself, his muscles wasting away as his body tries to fight the infection and the poison of the radiation. If they could find a doctor--there are doctors, Fili knows there are doctors, and if they could find one--

"I'm hungry," Kili murmurs against Fili's neck. His arms are wrapped loosely around Fili's neck, and he is plucking Fili's shirt. Kili doesn't wear clothes anymore--the fabric only irritates the blisters, makes them burst, and so he's naked, a bony thing clinging to Fili's back.

(Fili doesn't think they'll find a doctor.)

"Are you?" Fili asks. Hunger is a constant for him--he is always hungry, is always thinking of how empty his stomach is. Kili's hunger, though, is fleeting--Kili's hunger comes and goes, just another victim of the radiation and poison in Kili's body. "What do you want to eat?"

He doesn't expect Kili to answer. Kili doesn't say much, most days. Most of the time, Kili only murmurs nonsensical sounds into Fili's skin, Kili's lips dry and rough and fever-hot. Kili's mouth is moving now, making little sounds, then Kili says, "Berries."

"Berries?" Fili breathes a laugh, then says, "Yeah, berries. As soon as we find Thorin, we can eat all the berries you want."

"With cream?" Kili asks, and he's turning his head, pressing his forehead against Fili's neck. Kili's skin is so hot--Fili wonders if it is possible for Kili to burn alive like this, to burn out to nothing but a husk.

"With cream," Fili tells him, and he keeps walking, over the ugly cracked road, where the weeds have been burnt to ash. "Cold cream, and berries, and maybe even sugar."


	4. Daemon AUs

**Bard and Kili, Daemon AU**

Bard has been watching Kili’s Astridr for longer than is proper—since before Kili offered to share a bed with him, and before Kili was so bold as to look straight at Bard’s Perun; Bard is always watching Astridr, his mouth open as he watches Asta change shapes with the ease of youth and indecision.

“When will she settle?” Bard asks Kili, and Kili tells him soon, because Fili’s Grimhildr settled just last year, stretching into the beautiful strength of a lion.

“Pity,” Bard says with a twist of a smile, and he kisses Kili as Asta shifts into the form of a dainty cat and begins to lick her paw.

 

**and a little bit more**

Asta never lets Bard's Perun touch her. She shies away, ducking low to the floor as a stoat, or curling beneath the bed as a snake, or even twisting back on Perun as a badger, hissing at him. Bard never says a word, but Kili feels utterly mortified, especially when Asta butts heads with Grimhildr and wraps around Lorelei's neck and uses clever monkey fingers to groom the coats and feathers of all the Company's daemons. Asta is flaunting her decision to spurn Perun, in front of everyone, and Kili wants to shake her.

"You're being cruel," he says instead, closing his hands into fists. Asta is a housecat again, rolling on the floor next to Kili's feet, her belly covered in thick, fluffy fur.

"I'm not," she says, and she arches her back, then twists onto her side. "I don't see why I should let him touch me, if I don't want him to. Besides, isn't it strange, to have a male daemon?"

"That doesn't matter," Kili says quickly, before he can be distracted by the oddity of Bard's Perun. "You're being cruel, and I don't want you to be. Why won't you just let him touch you?"

"I don't want him to," Asta says darkly, and she is rolling over onto her feet in order to stalk away from him. She sits down on the far side of the room, curling her tail over her feet. She's far enough away that Kili can begin to feel the cord between them tighten, and he wants to call her back to him--but he wants to grab her by the scruff of the neck, too, and shake her, and maybe throw her out of the room. She is so difficult, always so difficult, and Kili hates looking at her, and seeing how difficult he is, too.

"You're being difficult," he snaps at her, and he throws himself down on the bed, turning his back to her. 

He's still angry when Fili and Grimhildr come in to sleep. He can hear Fili pause just inside the room and ask, "What, again?"

When Asta gives a indelicate sounding snort, Kili grabs a pillow on the bed and shoves his face into it, so he won't have to hear Fili trying to reason with Kili's daemon, like Kili and Asta are children again, caught pulling each other's hair. When a heavy weight lands on the bed next to Kili, Kili grunts and holds onto the pillow all the tighter.

When Grimhildr stretches out beside Kili, close enough that Kili can feel the tickle of her rough fur, Kili grumbles, "Leave me alone, Grim."

It's a long time before he falls asleep--longer after Fili and Grim start to snore, their arms and paws stretched out and bumping against Kili's back. When a furry little face suddenly pushes in against Kili's neck, just beneath his chin, it startles Kili awake, and he flails, grabbing at Asta's little body.

"I'm sorry," she wails in a tiny voice, "I'm sorry, I wasn't mad at you--" 

He can feel the prickle of whiskers and the softness of her ears, and he pats at her clumsily, trying to wake up enough to understand her.

"It's fine," he mutters, and he twists so he is lying on his back. Asta takes that as permission to curl up over his collarbone, her little body pressing against his neck and his jaw. "'m not mad at you--"

Though he is mad, even if it is only a very little. Still, Asta gives a shaky little sigh, and Kili cups his hands over her tiny body, holding her tightly. 

"I'm sorry," she whispers to him. "I just don't want to love someone who will leave us so soon."


End file.
